The Springs Country Club occupies 1 Duke Drive in Rancho Mirage, across Bob Hope Drive from Eisenhower Medical Center. Edwin Johnsen, a California land developer, secured the land on a handshake in the early 1970s. The first homes went up in 1974, and the club dates to October 7, 1975. Desmond Muirhead drew the 18 holes. Fifty years on, the club still calls itself one of the original private, member-owned clubs in the Coachella Valley, and it has just finished a $16 million golf course and irrigation renovation designed by Cary Bickler.
This 2026 buyers guide covers who owns the course, what Bickler changed, how the houses are classified, and which membership comes with a home. For the community overview, start with our The Springs Country Club developments page.
Key takeaway: A home purchase brings a Community Membership (dining, social, racquet sports, fitness) through a homeowner initiation fee, with dues folded into the HOA. Golf is a separate, optional membership. FlexMLS closed sales over five years ran from $515,000 to $2,425,000.
Who owns The Springs Country Club?
The homeowners do, through their association. Before 2019, equity golf members controlled the course and club property, separate from the homeowners association. In May 2019 The Desert Sun reported the deal that ended the split: the golf equity members gave up their equity and sold the course to the HOA for $1. In return the HOA assessed each of its 817 members $5,000, raising more than $4 million for a clubhouse renovation. The deal took effect October 1, 2019.
One condition from that deal still matters. Club leaders said the golf operation had to pay its own bills rather than draw on HOA funds. Ask how that line is drawn in the current budget before you assume a golf deficit can never reach a non-golfer’s assessment. Member-owned is a governance fact. It is also a budget fact.
What did the $16 million course renovation change?
The number is the clubs own. Its history page states that The Springs recently completed a $16 million golf course and irrigation renovation designed by Cary Bickler, with new greens and bunkers and a Rain Bird IC irrigation system. The Desert Sun, Golfweek, and Palm Springs Life have reported the same figure.
Bickler, a Southern California architect who worked alongside Muirhead, treated the job as restoration. All 18 greens were rebuilt from 16 inches below the old surfaces and planted in TifTuf Bermuda. He removed 13 greenside bunkers added after Muirhead’s original design, leaving chipping areas where a missed approach can still be saved, and added a forward set of tees at about 4,500 yards. The course reopened during a grand opening week in November 2025.
The club lists the layout at par 72 and 6,638 yards. For a buyer, the renovation is a finished capital project, not a fee. It still belongs in your file. Ask how it was financed, whether an assessment or golf dues change followed, and what the reserve study lists as the next large item.
Are the homes condos or single-family residences?
Both, depending on which document you read. The club describes 817 homes, attached and detached, across 12 base floor plans with two-, three-, and four-bedroom layouts. In the FlexMLS closed-sales file for The Springs Country Club subdivision, 288 of 313 sales were booked as Single Family Residence and 25 as Condominium. Year built clusters in the 1970s and 1980s.
The label changes how you buy. A condominium interest and a fee-simple lot can carry different insurance, lender, and maintenance obligations even when two houses share a paint color and a fairway view. Confirm the legal description in the preliminary title report, then read the CC&Rs for who maintains roofs and exteriors. For sellers, this is where presentation earns its fee: plan named correctly, remodel permitted, legal form stated plainly.
Does club membership come with the house?
Partly, and this is the distinction buyers most often get wrong. The club’s real estate FAQ says every resident receives a Community Membership with their initiation fee, covering dining, social events, racquet sports, and the fitness center, with monthly dues included in the HOA fee. Golf memberships are optional and cost extra, at a reduced resident rate. The deed brings you into the community club through an initiation fee. It does not make you a golf member.
That Community Membership reaches the 48,000-square-foot clubhouse, a racquet club with nine tennis courts (two of them Har-Tru clay), 12 pickleball courts, and two bocce lanes, and 46 community saltwater pools and spas. Confirm the current initiation fee, golf category, and dues with the club in writing. We do not reprint fee tables; they change.
Two more rules from the same FAQ shape who buys here. Short-term rentals are not allowed; home rentals carry a 30-day minimum. About 40 percent of homeowners live here year-round, and in the off-season the restaurants still open four nights a week for dinner.
What sold price range is verified for The Springs in 2026?
FlexMLS closed sales for The Springs Country Club subdivision in Rancho Mirage from September 17, 2021, through September 3, 2026, totaled 313 and spanned $515,000 to $2,425,000, matching our developments page. The median was $1,075,000. Sales booked as Single Family Residence ran from $600,000 to $2,425,000; Condominium sales ran from $515,000 to $1,365,000. That is a sold band for the subdivision, not a forecast and not a valuation of any property.
How does The Springs compare with other Rancho Mirage clubs?
Desert Island wraps another Muirhead course around a lake with condominium towers; see our Desert Island Country Club Rancho Mirage 2026 buyers guide. Sunrise is a different file: Bill Bone’s condominium club on a Ted Robinson executive course, covered in our Sunrise Country Club Rancho Mirage 2026 buyer’s guide. The Springs is a full-length private Muirhead 18 with 817 homes and an HOA that owns the course. For city context, see our Rancho Mirage neighborhood page.
How should a 2026 buyer walk The Springs?
Play Bickler’s greens before you tour a house, because the course is the club’s newest capital project. Eat lunch in the clubhouse on a weekday; a Tuesday dining room tells you more about a club’s culture than a Saturday open house. Then do the paperwork in order: title report, CC&Rs, HOA budget and reserve study, recent board minutes, and the clubs membership terms in writing. Norman Williams reads that stack for every buyer he represents here and builds the same file for every seller before a listing goes live.
Frequently asked questions about The Springs Country Club in Rancho Mirage
Where is The Springs Country Club?
1 Duke Drive, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270, across Bob Hope Drive from Eisenhower Medical Center.
Who designed the golf course?
Desmond Muirhead designed the original course for the club’s 1975 opening. Cary Bickler designed the $16 million golf course and irrigation renovation that reopened in November 2025.
Is golf included when you buy a home?
No. Residents receive a Community Membership with their initiation fee, with dues in the HOA fee. Golf membership is optional and costs extra. Confirm current terms with the club in writing.
Is The Springs Country Club member-owned?
Yes. The club describes itself as private and member-owned, and since October 2019 the homeowners association has owned the golf course.
What have homes sold for at The Springs?
FlexMLS closed sales from September 17, 2021, through September 3, 2026 (313 sales) ranged from $515,000 to $2,425,000, with a median of $1,075,000.
Norman Williams leads presentation and representation for buyers and sellers at The Springs Country Club, working with Jacqulyn Stanton of The Stanton Williams Group at Compass. Reach Norman at 760.464.2190 or Jacqulyn at 760.702.2557, or start with our The Springs Country Club developments page.
Written by Norman Williams of The Stanton Williams Group at Compass, with Jacqulyn Stanton. Norman Williams, DRE #02051057. Jacqulyn Stanton, DRE #01369783. Club facts from thespringsrm.com; ownership history from The Desert Sun (May 26, 2019); renovation details from The Desert Sun, Golfweek (November 15, 2025), and Palm Springs Life (January 29, 2026). Sold range from FlexMLS Closed sales, The Springs Country Club subdivision (n=313). Accessed September 28, 2026. Nothing here is a valuation of any property.
